Extreme beginner

[leca07]

OK do call me stupid, but I still have to ask you something. I've just started learning PS and a big problem appeared at the very beginning. I hit Ctrl N, entered some values and a new doc appeared. I picked the rectangle tool, draw a shape and filled it. But when I inserted a new layer and wanted to draw something on it none of the tools were available. I clicked on all of them, their property bars apeared but the pointer was still "the pointer". Then I clicked on the first layer and suddenly the title bar became grayed out like it was inactive. So I closed it and hit CTRL N again. Next I placed a .jpg photo, but when I tried to aply a brush stroke on it., the same thing happened as mentioned above. Am I doing something wrong

[leca07]

OK do call me stupid, but I still have to ask you something. I've just started learning PS and a big problem appeared at the very beginning. I hit Ctrl N, entered some values and a new doc appeared. I picked the rectangle tool, draw a shape and filled it. But when I inserted a new layer and wanted to draw something on it none of the tools were available. I clicked on all of them, their property bars apeared but the pointer was still "the pointer". Then I clicked on the first layer and suddenly the title bar became grayed out like it was inactive. So I closed it and hit CTRL N again. Next I placed a .jpg photo, but when I tried to aply a brush stroke on it., the same thing happened as mentioned above. Am I doing something wrong

[Erik Heyninck]

Welcome Jane.

First things first: no one will call you stupid. Why should they? We all learn and are often baffled because the train of thoughts of the engineers who designed Photoshop isn't necessarily ours. Me too I'm still having things that don't work like they should.

This said, one of the main things of Photoshop is that when you save and close, it reopens next time with the same preferences you gave it. (There are some exceptions like when there is an image on the clipboard for example).

It would be great, for now and for the future as I (we) hope you will hang around, to know a few more things.

Are you working with a Mac or a PC?

Was the jpg loaded in full colour, greys or black and white?

I only ask because if you should be in bitmap mode, nothing that is not black or white will work, like feathered brushes etc.


Which values did you enter for the new document?
Did you choose RGB mode, or bitmap, or...?

You should start with RGB to be able to work with all the tools, even if your work is in black and white.

As you call yourself a beginner, may I also suggest the tutorials that gave me my first basic insights? You can find them at

http://photoshopgurus.info/


Try to write down the problem step by step. You will get an answer here.

'till soon

[leca07]

Thank, I'll try with that tutorial. I'm working with PC and the photo was in full color, and I chose RGB mode.

[Erik Heyninck]

Sorry to repeat this, but if I understand you correctly, you opened a jpg image in RGB mode, you then either chose the layer menu and chose new layer or clicked on the icon at the bottom of the layers palette to add a new layer, and then when you tried to use any tools on this layer, you couldn't because all tools were greyed out?

Can you use, for example, the brush or the airbrush directly on the jpg image?
Can you select with any of the selection tools?
Can you drag the jpg in the layers palette to the new layer icon so as to make a copy of it that is no longer a background?

Are you using PS6.1(?) on a Mac or a PC?

[Klaus Nordby]

I suspect you're in high-bit RGB mode - 48-bit. Almost no tools are available then, so at least make sure you're in 24-bit RGB.

K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara

[photoman]

What version of photoshop are you using? It's important to know, if were going to help you the best way possible. Photoshop 6.0 has options for vector graphics. Which you cannot draw on the vector rectangle in the normal way.
That's why I ask. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Wait I'm not done yet! Ok, now I'm done.

[leca07]

I'm working on Win98 platform and using PS6. I didn't mention but I've been using Corel PhotoPaint for quite some time (3 years that is.) Again I tryed to do the same thing. I placed a jpeg photo, with settings RGB mode and white background. Then I clicked on Create a new layer icon on Layers palette, drew a red rectangle and then I tryed to apply a brush stroke on it but when I chose a brush tool the pointer didn't turn into brush - it stayed the arrow, although the brush property bar appeared on the top. And again I clicked on each and every tool on the toolbar(move tool, hand, zoom...), their property bars appeared on the top but the pointer didn't turn into selected tool.
But when I tryed not to add another layer but apply a brush directly on the photo then the pointer did turn into brush.
Thanks again.

[leca07]

Here's the screenshot of the thing I've been telling you. I placed the photo and when I added a new layer the titlebar greyed out and as you can see the pointer didn't turn into brush tool which I had selected.

[Erik Heyninck]

Hi Jane,

Thanks for this Printscreen.
To be shure, I tried out the same settings as you, although with another jpg of course, and I could paint on this new layer with black (the foreground colour).

Can you use the Airbrush, or apply a gradient on the layer?

If you open a second image (jpg,...in RGB 24) and you click and drag it on the first one, it should be on a new layer. Does this work? Can you, on the layers palette toggle visibility on and off with the eye icon? Can you play with the opacity settings, and the blending modes (the dropdown when you click the arrow next to "normal")?

If you save the jpg as a tiff file, or a psd and re open this copy, do you have the same problems?

If you open a new document, white and RGB 24bit, can you paint on that? Can you add a layer and paint on it?

Do you use 98, or 98SE?

Lots of questions, but...

If nothing works and I didn't overlook anything, I can only suppose that something went wrong when you installed Photoshop (did you get the free update 6.1 at Adobe's?).

Sorry if you know and did all this, but the best way to install something under Windows is to start with a defrag. (in fact, a clean, new installed Win is best if you tried out a lot of demo's etc.) Then, with Ctrl+Alt+Del you close all progs running in the background except Explorer and Systray. Then you start the install procedure, install the update and at the end you reboot.

Me too, I come from Photopaint (9), and not only I lost my prejudices against PS, but I quickly considered it the tool around which all my other software make their orbits.

May I suggest you also read the other threads here on how to give ramhungry Photoshop sufficient memory etc? Because it is a real Tyrannosaurus.

And keep on posting and asking.


Success.